t-rex-iss1: RADAR Messages: 23 Entries..

MISS profiler pc seems to be having network connection problems.
The consensus files haven't been making it across to the data manager
since last evening, however the profiler is otherwise running okay.

The raw spectral files are being recorded okay so consensus data can
be recovered post-project.

Opening explorer showed that the k drive looks okay and is open,
and there was no error message in POP.  Rebooting computer didn't
help. Did rass run at 1635 as test but still not transfering data.
Since there's an EOP on now and the raw data is being recorded, 
I won't any further tests just now.

Restarted POP to get SOAP running again.  1810 UT

MISS profiler saw some reverse flow (westerlies low, easterlies aloft) at
around 16 UT (Apr 26).

Occasional light RFI and clutter, but relatively minor.

The MISS profiler went down at approx 2300 on the 24th. and was restarted at 1700 on the 25th. there was the following error message on the pop screen.
"Sampling did not finish in 5 sec. Flag = -1 SNR.

Switched profiler to 100 meter mode at 22:10 UT for tomorrows IOP.

Also trailer waas slightly tilted.  
Putting electronic level along front side of profiler, 
was tilted 1.3 deg too high on east side and 0.4 deg along right side.
(0.1 along left side and 0.7 along back so overall tilt prob about 1 deg).
Lowered front right leg a little and now level to within 0.2 degree.

RASS was off overnight while Lou did repairs to supports on dish,
but on from 1830.

Keeping winds mode at 60m for tonight's EOP.

In the photos I took yesterday, the trailer looked a little crooked, so
I checked it with the level today.  The trailer is at 1.7 to 2 degrees
off level, but the antenna itself is within 0.2 degrees of level, in
both directions.

I think we need to mount the level sensor for the automatic jacks to the 
antenna instead of the trailer.

In an attempt to see if the mesh clutter fence has to large a holes, we took chicken wire and wrapped it around and zip-tied it to it. This should reduce the hole size in the fence.

We put the fencing on between 1030 and 1130 ltc. 

I took off the clutter filter, reduced it to 0 heights.

I took the DC filter off too, but that meant the dc signal completely dominated the spectra. 

As long at it doesn't ruin the profilers results we'll leave it on for a day. 

The winds stayed pretty low speed at the surface for the test. Now the next day I'm going to remove the chicken wire 1739utc and let the system run w/o the wire for an hour or so.

I was able to take the chicken wire off before the next RASS dwell started. Finished by 1800UTC. Now the radar will run on its own for an hour or more. 

There was lots of clutter at bearing 212, so we turned the trailer to 232.

We did this by stowing the satellite,
moving the RASS dishes out of the way, 
raising the jacks, and
backing the truck up to the hitch at 90 degrees, 
then pulling the trailer clockwise.

Everything else was left running.  I suspect we could have left the satellite
dish up and just hit search again after the move, but we stowed it first.

The trailer bearing is now 232 degrees from true north.
The radar par files have been modified accordingly and POP restarted.  The
clutter looks a little better, and there has been no sign of RFI.

forgot to take off the pause... 

Picking up some rf interference this afternoon.

I am also starting to notice the +/-17 ms-1 signal again.

Profiler starting to pick up a little interference again this morning.

Source of RFI is unknown.

Profiler seems to be picking up some interference since about 20 UTC,
this interference has swamped the signal between 22 and 00 UTC.

Source of RFI is unknown.

Brief period of interference encountered at 16 UTC, 20 March. Also, some
noisy wind vectors in lowest range gates, may be due to cars passing by.

Otherwise, all systems performed normally during IOP.

Plan to move MISS back to base tomorrow (TUES) morning.

Thursday March 16.
Profiler was experiencing some type of interference - Mike thinks. 
This lasted from about 20:30 UTC to 22:45 UTC.

I assumed it was still occurring and restarted the system
at 0030 UTC - appearantly un-necessarily.

All data appears to be ok now.

Thursday March 16.
Brian serviced the generator this morning. MISS was left off in anticipation of a move to OV2 at noon. However, the PI called with a nowcast of a wave/rotor cloud and asked us to turn MISS back on. We will hear by 1pm about a move this afternoon.

Off: approx 17Z (9am). On approx 19Z (11am)

Thursday 4pm (00Z Mar 10)
Weak clear air, but some snow and ice crystal reflectivity aloft showing vertical motions. The consensus is failing but I bet winds could be pulled out of this data.

Monday mroning check up.

Seems to be running well.  Now that we have a little weather,
(lots of low clouds, occasional drizzle) we'll getting good signal
with manageable clutter.

Main tank is just over half full, and day tank is full.

Saw some RFI on the 18:30 UT RASS run, although generally RASS looks
to be doing okay (the last few runs have got to 700m), this run
only got consensus to 300m.

Winds mode is not showing any obivous RFI.

Clear easterlies on MISS profiler from around 2:15 UT persisting for at
least 30 minutes.  They are from the lowest gate, nearly up to 1 km.
Surface south-easterlies, might be usual valley flow.

Also probable easterlies showing up is SOAP 10 minute analysis around
1:15 - 1:30 UT (we'll reanalyze with NIMA to confirm).

Had some Motosat problems after the power down for  reorientating MISS.
Did stow the sat while moving, and powered up as per instructions, 
but it hung not responding to buttons nor web page.

Eventually powered off the Motosat power strip,
stowed dish, then did search again.
This time it worked and link now is okay.

Briefly turned off profiler to check K drive still connected around 0UT

Re-orientate MISS at Base Site

Profiler down 21 - 23 UT.

We were getting lots of clutter - mainly in east and west beams so we decided
to orientate the system to point nulls at the power lines.
This will put a main lobe towards ISS2 - but it doesn't seem to be
getting RFI so this appears to be okay.

Trailer is now orientated to 289 degrees true (as measured by compass
and confirmed by a map reading).  
KVH reading is 313 and Motosat reading is 307 true
(but Motosat is having trouble locking to satellite).

Clutter appears to be much better.
(run briefly at 22ut to test new orientation, but antenna directions
not yet corrected nor system leveled).

Running correctly from about 23 UT

The wind at the surface is out of the west and the dishes were in the south. There was little rass signal in the profiler, so I moved the dishes to the sides and it appears to have helped.

Some RFI again up to 2130.

Very weak RASS so moved dishes from north (downwind) to south end of
trailer - brisk southerly.